Folks, once again spin is ruling. If you weren't there, don't take sides at the expense of other people.

With all due respect to Steve Clark, from my perspective as a competitor it appears Steve could have been wrong and there are always two sides to an incident. The incident happened at a leeward gate and the mark was the left mark looking downwind. The boat that hit Steve was approaching the mark on starboard tack and was preparing to jibe and leave the mark to port. Steve "closed the door" on him leaving him no where to go and the collision was the result. If Steve had the right of way, he should have steered down if possible, let the other boat in, and then protested. But many competitors in the event feel that the other boat probably had the overlap with lots of time to spare. I don't know what was said on the water after the incident, but the other competitor withdrew from the race and was upset about it.

There was another incident in the same race where a competitor tacked in front of Steve (who was on starboard) and unfortunately Steve capsized avoiding a collision. Steve felt the other sailor tacked too close, the other sailor felt he was clear. Once again, Steve should have protested if he felt the other sailor was wrong.

Steve, you had a bad day with some bad luck. Stuff happens and we're bummed it got the best of you. But you did have the option to protest in each incident and take it to a protest committee and you chose not to. It's not fair to criticize the rest of the fleet if you chose to not pursue the justice you felt you were due. I hope you get your boat back together and are back on the race course soon.

I completely disagree with comments made about the lack of understanding of the RRS in this fleet. I was in the cheap seats plenty of times and rounded marks and gates with a lot of boats. I was quite impressed with the way the sailors handled themselves around the marks. Sure there were those who "pushed" but at the end of the day there were no damaged boats on the beach so we must have been doing something right.

Regarding the OCS redress incident earlier in the week, the fact was a competitor felt the RC did not react soon enough with an IR and requested redress for his OCS score. The RRS ALLOW YOU TO DO THAT. The facts found by the international jury were the RC made a mistake that affected this sailor and they awarded a redress score as they saw fit. Nothing less, nothing more. I'm sure the members of the RC may not agree with the actions of the jury but that is the system our sport has and to criticize the competitor or put labels on him for pursuing this action is simply wrong.

The regatta was a fantastic success. Congrats to all of the competitors, the race committee, the jury, and especially the organzing committe.

Bob Hodges
USA 230